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The Dragon and the Bear hold joint war games

Russia and China begin joint war games Thursday, for the first time adding military muscle to a burgeoning partnership that some experts see sweeping away old strategic verities, from the Taiwan Strait to central Asia and beyond. The week-long maneuvers off the Pacific coast are widely viewed as Moscow lending a mail-gloved hand to China`s efforts to warn the United States away from involvement in any future crisis over Taiwan. But preparations to deal with potential unrest in Central Asia may also figure, some say. Last month, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Hu Jintao pledged to work together to prepare their armed forces "to deal with new challenges and threats," listed as extremism, terrorism, and separatism.

Further suggesting the war games may be part of a larger agenda is the presence of defense ministers from the six-member Shanghai Cooperation Organization Russia, China, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, and Kazakhstan. Some analysts believe Moscow and Beijing hope to transform the SCO, hitherto a Central Asian talking shop, into a NATO-style security alliance to keep order in their increasingly troubled neighborhood.

It`s been a long road for Russia and China, who fought a brief but savage border war in the 1960s and had virtually no relations until the collapse of the Soviet Union 14 years ago. Russia today is China`s main supplier of modern arms, nuclear technology, and energy. Trade between the two soared to nearly $20 billion last year and is projected to hit $60 billion by 2010.